Asia-Pacific, Economy & Trade, Headlines, Human Rights, Labour

LABOUR-SRI LANKA: Trade Unions Fail To Keep Workers Happy

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Aug 3 2007 (IPS) - Sri Lanka&#39s job market is getting more informal but trade unions have lost sight of globalisation-triggered changes where workers scurry to do two or more jobs at a time.

"Traditionally our labour market was about fulltime jobs and sometimes people had one job for life. This is not the case anymore," notes Dr Athula Ranasinghe, from the University of Colombo&#39s Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC).

Trade unions (TUs) reluctantly agree, some even conceding that the unions have failed to change with the times and keep workers happy. "The informal labour force is increasing and that&#39s partly our fault for not being able to adjust with the times and modernise," says T.M.R. Rasidin, a veteran trade unionist.

According to Rasidin, general secretary of the National Association of Trade Union Research and Education (NATURE), some 60 to 70 percent of Sri Lanka&#39s workforce is in the informal sector and this is growing.

"But the informal sector also means workers aren&#39t getting a rightful wage or statutory benefits permanent workers enjoy," he argues.

The findings of a recent study on labour flexibility and economic security conducted by SPARC with support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) shows that Sri Lanka&#39s job market is &#39informalising&#39 and upsetting labour market regulatory systems.

Ranasinghe, who presented the team&#39s findings at a recent workshop organised by the Colombo University, said they were seeing more &#39atypical&#39 workers because the typical structures are changing. "This is because businesses now hire workers under many different arrangements instead of hiring in the traditional way. The result is increasing informalisation of the labour market," he said.

It was also found that Sri Lankan companies are increasingly outsourcing activities to third parties that in turn hire casual workers. "So jobs that were previously in the formal sector are migrating to the informal sector," said Ranasinghe. For example, in both the offices of the private sector (the biggest employer in Sri Lanka) and the public sector, the cleaning and security staff are hired from outside, a sharp contrast to a decade ago when they were permanent employees of the institution.

The SPARC-ILO survey also found that TUs are losing worker support. "Younger people are beginning to feel that TUs are less supportive of worker objectives and problems. So this means traditional trade unions need to change or some other type of arrangement needs to be developed to give voice to working people," said Ranasinghe. Anton Marcus, a top unionist representing garment workers, says that a large informal workforce is not good for the economy. "There is no commitment from such a worker, productivity suffers and they are waiting to finish one job quickly to move to another," he said.

Companies on the other hand are also responsible for informalising the labour market, the study shows. They are increasingly issuing short-term contracts instead of permanent contracts. As a result more people are looking for part-time work.

Agrees Marcus: "At today&#39s high cost of living, doing one job is not good enough. You need to do 2-3 jobs to make ends meet." Annual inflation this month rose to 17 percent from single digit inflation during the same July month last year with fuel prices rising monthly and essential commodities skyrocketing.

The rapid growth of the informal labour market is also raising questions about the effectiveness of education in finding employment.

The SPARC-ILO surveys found that informal methods of using &#39contacts&#39 and &#39influence&#39 are still the main route to jobs, rather than finding jobs on the traditional strength of educational qualifications.

"Around 24 percent of people visited prospective employers to get jobs and another 25 percent applied for jobs through contacts. Only about 30 percent applied for jobs through the formal, published job vacancies," said Ranasinghe.

G. Weerakoon, a retired commissioner of labour, says that one of the problems why workers are fighting shy of TUs is because many have political affiliations and there are too many around. For a country where less than 30 percent of the workforce are organised in unions, there are as many as 1,600 TUs in operation.

Unionist Rasidin would like unions to be attuned to the economic reforms that are taking root across the globe. "The rights of both employer and worker need to be equally recognised. For that to happen, the rights of the worker should be recognised," he said

In some areas that is actually happening. A recent study by the Centre for Poverty Analysis, a poverty research think tank, found that TU power had been marginalised so much that the management of former state enterprises now in the hands of the private sector were willing to listen and understand workers and deal with them directly.

The study, &#39Between Theory and Rhetoric: The Workers&#39 Reality&#39, looked at three loss-making state enterprises that dealt with salt, steel and graphite that were sold to private hands over a five year period.

This study showed that unions able to change with the times continued to draw new members while traditional unions were fast losing ground.